Pellegrini: Slovakia Wants to Extend Broad-Gauge Track to Bratislava

Sofia, July 6 (TASR-correspondent) – Slovakia has an ambition to play a strategic role in the field of transport also in the future, Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) stated after a bilateral meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, which took place before a summit of 16 Central and Eastern European countries and China in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The Slovak premier stressed that they also talked about the possibility of extending the broad-gauge track from the eastern part of Slovakia to Bratislava.
Pellegrini informed the Chinese prime minister that Slovakia plays a strategic role in the field of oil and natural gas transportation from east to west. At the same time he expressed a Slovak ambition to continue to play such a strategic role also in the future. “We therefore talked specifically about the possibility of extending the broad-gauge track from the eastern part of Slovakia towards Bratislava directly to the Danube river, which could significantly reduce the need to transfer containers coming from the Eastern world,” Pellegrini said.
The project is being prepared by four railways – Slovak, Austrian, Ukrainian and Russian, and it is expected that the track would be extended to the Austrian territory, while two large terminals should be part of it – one in Slovakia and the other in Austria.
At the meeting they also talked about China’s interest to participate in this project financially. “This project’s value is calculated somewhere between €7 and 8 billion, which is, of course, a considerable sum that is also interesting for Chinese banks and Chinese investors,” said Pellegrini.